Tuesday October 2, 2012 3:57 pm

Nest Learning Thermostat gets a redesign, new software features

You may have seen our videos of Nest, the learning thermostat that aims to change home heating and cooling. If you haven't, check out our Nest thermostat unboxing and Nest thermostat installation video. It's been about a year since Nest launched, and Tony Fadell and company haven't been resting on their laurels. Instead, the company has just announced the next version of the Nest Learning Thermostat. What's changed? Well, the new model is noticeably thinner, doing away with the front ring wheel and instead incorporating it into the body of the thermostat. It also works much a much wider array of heating and cooling technologies, as well as whole home humidifiers.

If you own an Android tablet, you'll be happy to know that Nest has finally made an app available to control the device remotely, while the existing iOS and Android apps are seeing updates to support all the new hotness. You can pre-order the new Nest now for $249, or you can grab the first-generation model for $229. All of the software features that the new model sports are also supported by the older version, so it appears the only difference between the two is the size of the actual device.